One of the miracles of the mobile phone is that it has replaced a concern for the human condition with a question about his physical location. So, no longer does anybody ask you “How are you?” when you answer a call, but “Where are you?”

This year’s civilian honours is a bit like that. It’s not about who you are or how you are doing, but where you are, and by extension, who you know and hobnob with.

K. Subrahmanya reports in today’s Deccan Herald that five of the 13 Padma Bhushan awardees are Delhiites (strike rate 38 per cent); 13 of the 35 Padma Bhushan awardees are Delhiites (strike rate 37 per cent); and almost a quarter of the 71 Padma Shri awardees are Delhiites (strike rate: 25 per cent)

12 comments

Sir,
I cannot understand the award for LN Mittal and equating him with TATA and NARAYANA MURTHY.What is his contribution to Indian industry or growth?
I cannot understand the award for Sunitha williams an american of Indian origin. What is her achievement for India. Infact she is exposing our bogus science establshment.Also another american night shaymlan. What is his contribution to Mother India and Indian filmdom? Ther are somany struggling film makers in Bengal,karnataka,Kerala who created brilliant movies.

its really sad that lotz of non-indians and NRI (who dont even care for the country) have been awarded. Why the he.. they are treating this bl..dy mittal same with our own ratan and murthy. mittal is domiciled in uk not like tata who is the boon and leads the indian industries in global market. what the he” sunita has done to the country.

Long ago I checked a list of govt. educational scholarships and found that a large percentage went to Delhi students and those from state capitals. This was about 30 years ago. The only thing that I remember is wondering whether this would change over time as more people, away from centres of information, got to know about these things and have enough time to apply for them.

Thanks for letting us know the difference. However your statements need to be corrected at some places. I am making that effort.

Every award is under Government of India’s control. Only difference between Bharat Ratna and Padma awards is that Padma awards are decided by Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) ( I notice conflict here. . home affairs trying to become external affairs by doling out awards to foreigners.. but let us ignore it ) whereas Bharat Ratna is decided by Prime Minister himself.
There is a govenment order Ms No 11 dt. 13th July 2004 from MHA asking all the state governments to institute a process for nominations for Padma awards, where as there is no such government order on how to nominate for Bharath Ratna.

What it says is nomination commitee should consist of Governor of State, Chief Minister of State, Speakers and Deputy Speakers, all the ministers of the state and all loksabha and rajyasabha MPs from the state, chief secretary to the state , Information secretary, and Director of Information and Publicity.and one academician!! Note that commitee is almost entirely consists of political class except for three executives and one academician.. Note the sole academician is there to give sanctity to the process because constitution stipulates that titles given be given only for military or academic honors!!

When cabinet secretary says that awards are not under government control ( assuming he said that .. I do not know for sure ) he is misrepresenting. Probably he would have said that awards were not under the control of cabinet because MHA decides the awards. Civil servants are trained to make misleading statements to create confusion. Padmanabhiah will surely have the awards in his belly ( incidentally he has an apt name )

Dhirubhai Ambami missed even Padma Awards because he lived outside Delhi though he deserved Bharath Ratna. I do not subscribe to all his methods but the Infrastructure he created for India is phenomenal.

The Ex Cabinet Secretary was Subramaniam (I referred as Padmanabhan as a ? mark).

When Sardar Patel got Bharat-Ratna after Rajiv Gandhi, or Indira, guess, we ought to think less about it. The King is definitely naked. Still, we are clapping around him!

Advani muddled water deliberately to stop a Communist from getting a Bharat-Ratna this year as Cong wants to keep CPIM happy. As someone who is ideologically fiercely opposed to Communists, Advani accomplished his job well by proposing a better candidate. This year’s awards will be remembered for this event alone.